Kalk Bay Books launches Under Our Skin & A Week in The Kitchen

A father and son memoir; a story of living in South Africa in the darkest years, and finding the depths and heights of what that did to the lives and relationship of these two men.

Don McRae grew up in a South Africa where his father would call the black men he met ‘boy’
and where his mother insisted that their black servants used tin mugs, plates and cutlery
as they ate the family’s left-over food in the backyard of their grand suburban property.
The McRaes, like so many white people, seemed oblivious to the violent injustices of apartheid.

As the author grew up, the political differences between father and son widened and when Don refused to join up for National Service, risking imprisonment or exile overseas,
the two were torn apart.
It wasn’t until years later that the author discovered that the father
with whom he had fought so bitterly had later in his life
transformed himself into a political hero.

Risking everything one dark and rainy night Ian McRae travelled secretly into Soweto to
meet members of the then banned ANC to discuss ways to bring power to black South Africa.
He had no political ambitions;
he was just a man trying to replace the worst in himself with something better.

Under Our Skin is a memoir of these tumultuous years in South Africa’s history, as told through the author’s family story. It offers an intimate and penetrating perspective on life under apartheid,
and tells a story of courage and fear, hope and desolation and love and pain,
especially between a father and his son.

This is an extraordinary story and we hope you can join us for the launch, when Donald McRae will be in conversation with veteran struggle activist, Horst Kleinschmidt.